After a year in office, Benedict is proving a surprise, both in his relaxed politics and in the exotic couple he relies on to control his private life, writes John Cornwell

Meeting the late Pope John Paul II in his heyday I was transfixed by his sturdy tan shoes. Popes traditionally wear scarlet slippers fit for the sanctuary. Papa Wojtyla went heavily shod for the outdoors. A year ago we saw him laid out in death in St Peter’s Basilica still wearing those scuffed clodhoppers, the toes pointing heavenwards. His would be hard shoes to fill.

John Paul was a superstar pope, credited with prompting the downfall of the Soviet system and pressing home staunch values to combat global moral decline. Yet he bequeathed to his successor a church in disarray: not least the aftermath of the paedophile priest scandal. Dwindling congregations of Catholics in the prosperous north, moreover, have for years been at each other’s throats. Conservative Catholics, for example, insist that even Aids victims should not use condoms: liberals argue that such strictures are lunacy. Meanwhile, the preponderant Catholic